The Great(er) Heal Debate!
The Challenge
Is there still a place for Greater Heal in a Priest’s healing arsenal? I still use it, but I’m beginning to wonder whether it really is something I should have on my action-bar. There are certainly times that people have died because I’ve used Greater instead of Flash, but I’m prepared to work on those mistakes if I feel Greater Heal is giving me tangible benefits. So here’s the question: Does Greater heal have a significant benefit over Flash Heal in any situations?
The differences between Flash and Greater Heal are essentially three things: a) Mana Cost, b) Size of Heal, c) Cast Time.
So lets look and see whether Greater Heal has any major advantages in one of those three things. Quick and dirty summary at the bottom of the post.
Maybe Deathwing fixed my Talent Trees
The world is changing, the zones we know so well being completely reforged from the ground up. Things which we’ve taken for granted are disappearing or close to destruction. The bastions we return home to after a day’s raiding are suffering from the devastation. Orgrimmar destroyed, Malfurion returning to rally the survivors of a broken world, Volcanoes erupt, Dragons scourge the land, the Wetlands overthrown, Blackrock Mountain rising again, Desolace reborn, old quest lines advanced. When I think about travelling the skies of this new Azeroth I have so many questions. Things like, did Hogger survive? Has Mankrik found his wife?
But the changes are not just physical and temporal. I posted very recently about how I felt there was not enough flexibility in the Priest talent trees about where you were realistically able to put points. I ended that post by asking whether at this ‘late’ stage, Blizzard were really committed enough to overhaul the talent trees to the degree that would be needed.
Well, then Blizzcon happened and we all got a very good insight into how committed Blizzard are to this game. Where many companies would have tacked yet another Expansion onto the end of the game, Blizzard are not only totally revamping a gigantic amount of old content, they are also fundamentally changing a lot about how the basic game mechanics work. For example, Player Stats, Talents trees, and the impact of Path of the Ancients.
At the very minimum the changes to Player Stats means that a gigantic amount of work will have to be done on the Talent Trees themselves. Of course, this definitely doesn’t mean Blizzard agree with me about what the problems are with the current talent trees, but it certainly demonstrates their willingness to change them at a fundamental level. Whatever your views are about the direction you want WoW to go, it certainly shows they aren’t resting on their laurels.
Take a random spell that everybody seems reasonably happy with: Inner Fire grants you Armour and Spell Power. Well, in Cataclysm there will be no spell power, so will Inner Fire grant Intellect instead? A minor point, but it shows just how pervasive the changes will have to be. Hundreds of spells and talents will have to be removed, overhauled or at the very least tweaked to match up with the new vision Blizzard have.
Talents like Darkness, Spiritual Guidance, Empowered Healing, Spiritual Healing, Empowered Renew, Mental Strength. Shaman Totems, pretty much every Raid buff, scroll, food or enchantment in the game. All these things will have to be reforged. There is no spell power, so now you can expect that new healing staff to have, what? 500 intellect? And you will enchant it with what? More Intellect? Crit? Mastery points? Think how much work will have to be redone!
The world is changing, many things have fallen away and enemies new and old rise up to try and cast us down. It was beginning to feel like we might be near the end, but there is a long journey still ahead of us. It’s going to kick ass.
Trial of the Champion: Faction Champions
This is not an easy fight to describe, it’s very unconventional.
If you did the 5 man Magister’s Terrace back in TBC you might remember the second last fight was something like an arena match. Your 5man group faces off against a five separate bosses each with a different class and class abilities.
This fight is very similar but with 10v6 (or 25v10 for 25 man raids). So your raid will be facing off against a group of NPCs from the opposite faction. The exact composition will change from raid to raid, but not from wipe to wipe. So once you start the encounter you will be fighting the same setup for the rest of the lockout.
| Class | Champions | |
|---|---|---|
| Alliance | Horde | |
| Death knight | Tyrius Duskblade | Gorgrim Shadowcleave |
| Druid (Moonkinr) | Kavina Grovesong | Birana Stormhoof |
| Druid (Resto) | Melador Valestrider | Erin Misthoof |
| Hunter | Alyssia Moonstalker & cat pet |
Ruj’kah & cat pet |
| Mage | Noozle Whizzlestick | Ginselle Blightslinger |
| Paladin (Heal) | Velanaa | Liandra Suncaller |
| Paladin (Retribution) | Baelnor Lightbearer | Malithas Brightblade |
| Priest (Holy/Disc hybrid) | Anthar Forgemender | Caiphus the Stern |
| Priest (Shadow) | Brienna Nightfell | Vivienne Blackwhisper |
| Rogue | Irieth Shadowstep | Maz’dinah |
| Shaman (Heal/Caster) | Saamul | Thrakgar |
| Shaman (Enhancement) | Shaabad | Broln Stouthorn |
| Warlock | Serissa Grimdabbler and her felhunter |
Harkzog and his felhunter |
| Warrior | Shocuul | Narrhok Steelbreaker |
The NPCs have many class abilities. The hunter “boss” for example does Deterrence, Disengage, Steady Shot, Wyvern Sting, Aimed Shot, Explosive Shot, Frost Trap and Wing clip. So it’s safe to assume each boss has many of the abilities you would associate with them and you should act accordingly.
Because of the fact the fight will have a different composition each time, and because there are so many targets, there is not a simple strategy for this fight. However, I can certainly make some observations.
Just a little bit Shadow: Flexibility in the Talent Trees
If you look at the Death Knight talent tree it reminds me very much of a delicatessen. That’s to say, all the talents look quite tasty. They might not be quite what you want, perhaps you don’t really like Olives, but you have to admit, they do look like very good Olives… and all those tasty Sun-dried Tomatoes… If you’re speccing into the blood tree you can still see a lot of nice options in the other talent trees. There is a enough overlap between Blood and Unholy, or Frost tanking and the tanking talents in Unholy or Blood to give you some nice options. There’s so many good things to pick and choose from.
When I look at the priest class I really see a set menu. The starter is 13 points in Discipline, and no, you can’t take the side salad instead.
I’ve talked about it several times before, but it’s so true it’s worth repeating, the reason those 13 points go into Discipline are two fold.
-
You need the mana from Meditation, it really is non negotiable.
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Those 13 points are the only place that all priests can put point without wasting them because the talents themselves are so generic.
Healer choices in the Shadow Tree
For example, imagine you’re a holy priest. You’ve picked up the talents you want from the Holy Tree and you’ve got 10-15 points left to spend. Lets look at the Shadow Tree. Really, open up Wowhead in another window and lets look at it:
Holy Spec
Unlike a Discipline priests there really is a lot of decisions to make in choosing a Holy spec.
As you make your decisions it’s important to keep in mind what you plan on doing as a Holy Priest. You can Tank heal as a Holy Priest, but you don’t really have the single target heals that Discipline benefits from. So as a Holy Priest your job is primarily raid healing. Now if you do a lot of 5 or 10 mans then chances are you might find yourself Tank healing every now and again so, if you expect to, you should take that into account when making your talent picks. On the other hand, if you’re doing solely 25 mans then you will rarely be tank healing and should pick your talents accordingly.
So here’s a couple of possibilities:
The first focusing on Mana efficiency: 18/53/0
And the second focusing on being an AoE healing powerhouse: 14/57/0
Discipline Tree:
As a Holy priests, strangely enough, your first major decision is how far you are going into Discipline. The realistic options are either 13, 14, or 18 points.
13 Points
Thirteen points is obligatory to pick up meditation. Without Meditation you gain zero (absolutely zero!) mana back from Spirit while casting. Without meditation you will either run out of mana, or spend so much item budget on MP5 and intellect that your healing will be awful. If tanks run away screaming whenever you join a group, check you have 3/3 Meditation.
14 Points
If you want it, the fourteenth point goes into Inner Focus. Inner Focus is also a mana talent. With a three minute cooldown, you will use it 2 or 3 times a boss fight. Assuming you use it on your most expensive spells (once on Divine Hymn and two times on Prayer of Healing) you are saving something like 4,500 mana, and gaining a 25% crit chance on those casts. For the 4,500 mana alone, that’s as good talent point.
18 Points
The final option is to take Mental Agility. As a Holy priest 3 of your 5 main spells (Circle of Healing, Renew and Prayer of Mending) are instant cast. So 10% less cost on those spells is a lot of mana. Furthermore this is nothing to do with your gear. So if you are just starting out and you have mana issues, getting Mental Agility is a good way to keep up with better geared healers. You’ll have to waste a point to get to Mental Agility, usually it’s in Improved Power Word: Shield, but it really doesn’t matter too much where it goes. Wasting a point can feel messy, but really, Mental Agility is good, if you are starting up and are having mana problems, or you’re doing hard modes, you might have a good hard look at this spec.
And the Threat is gone!
Dying to Auriaya?
Pesky Hunter’s Feign Death getting you down?
Tank can’t keep the mobs off you?
All these problems and more are solved by the new Threato-matic Wonder Fade! Get yours today whilst stocks last!
It was not that long ago that Fade was considered the most useless spell in the Priest arsenal and Improved Fade was the worst Talent in the Priest Tree (including Wand Specialisation). Nowadays it’s really good and yet people aren’t really talking about it.
The old Fade decreased your threat by a set amount (a few hundred “points” of threat) for a certain amount of time, after which you gained that threat back. This meant the chances of you actually losing aggro on a mob after pressing the Fade button were rather small. In a boss fight a tank would have hundreds of thousand of points of threat, and if you got aggro, dropping 500 was unlikely to make a difference.
The new Fade on the other hand has a much more useful design. When you press Fade you drop to the very bottom of the Threat List for every mob for a certain amount of time. So it’s similar to a Hunter’s Feign death, the only difference being that you are still on the aggro list. The boss is still thinking about you, but you’re the last thing on his mind.
Trial of the Champion: Lord Jaraxxus
Lord Jaraxxus is the second event of the Trial of the Champion Raid on both 10 and 20 man. The fight begins with him killing a gnome, so that’s nice. I really enjoyed this fight, it really felt like a Healer focused encounter.
As with Northrend Beasts, I’ll explain the fight and then try and outline some healing tips.
One thing to bear in mind is that you get a break between the end of Northrend Beasts and Lord Jaraxxus so you have time to rebuff, drink, distribute loot etc.
Lord Jaraxxus
There are a lot of abilities to this fight, but don’t be overwhelmed. It’s essentially an Add fight with a few gimmicks thrown in. So the focus is DPSing Lord Jaraxxus when possible, but killing the things he summons takes priority.
Priority for Melee DPS is Mistress of Pain first, Jaraxxus second.
For Ranged DPS it’s Mistress of Pain, Infernals, Jaraxxus.
So you have a main tank tanking Jaraxxus, any kind will do, but you should know that there is a lot of magic damage, and opportunities to interrupt.
He summons two sorts of adds which will be picked up by a second tank (on 25 man, it’s up to you whether you want to take an additional offtank).
Mistress of Pain
One of those six armed daemon women. She will come out of a large purple gateway that will appear. Her main ability of concern is that she will target a random person, pick them up incapacitating them briefly, and do substantial physical damage to them. On 10 man I was hit for around twelve thousand. Hence killing them fast is important and all DPS should switch to them.
Infernals
Jaraxxus will also periodically spawn a small green volcano on the ground. This volcano will spit out three or four Infernals. As usual the Infernals do an AoE fire attack on the ground around them, so only ranged should DPS these. They have a sort of “Charge-like” ability where they turn into a ball, float over to a raid member, and then cast their AoE. So the offtank needs to make sure they are reacquring them quickly, and players need tobe smart about moving away from them where possible.
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Healing Trial of the Champion: Northrend Beasts
The Trial of the Champion is the new big thing in 3.2 and comes in 5, 10 and 25 man versions.
In terms of the 10 and 25 version there is currently only one boss fight available and the idea is that more will be released each week until eventually 5 fights are available.
The fights are very accessible. It’s relatively simple, and doesn’t require excessive gear. To try and help people get involved with this new raid I’m going to run down how the current fight works, and then as the new fights get released I’ll explain those.
The Northrend Beasts encounter consists of three sets of bosses, but only rewards one set of loot. Presumably the Argent Tournament is short of funds. So it’s really one big three phase fight.
The three fights occur one after the other with no break. So in terms of mana management it’s one long fight and you need to use Mana Potions and other mana cooldowns accordingly. Similarly if you wipe you start again from the beginning and have to kill each boss again.
Even though there is no break, if your raid is here for the first time I’d suggest you only explain the mechanics for the first phase until you are clearing that, then explain the mechanics for the second phase etc. Chances are you won’t clear each phase first time anyway, so better not to overcomplicate things by trying to explain all the tactics in one big lump.
Gormok The Impaler
A giant Magnataur. Minor things to worry about are an AoE physical attack he does which will interrupt spell casting. It doesn’t hit very hard, but it’s only got a 15 yard range so healers and casters should be staying out of it.
In terms of the important abilities there are essentially three mechanics to this fight:
Impale
The first is that he stacks an Impale debuff on the tank which eventually become unhealable. The idea therefore is to have two tanks. The first tank takes the boss until he’s about to get a third stack of the debuff. At this point he second tank taunts. As soon as the debuff has fallen off the first tank he takes back over again.
Discipline Spec
Discipline Talents
It occurred to me that I was kind of missing out on some of the basics things people might like information on. So I figured I’d go back and cover Talent Specs a little. Today is going to be Discipline, I’ll do Holy or Shadow tomorrow if I can.
The cookie cutter Discipline Spec which I use looks like this 57/14/0:
I think the Discipline tree pretty much selects itself. You take all the talents which improve your healing and your mana, and you skip any PvP focused talents which give you better personal survivability. The perfect example is taking Twin Disciplines over Unbreakable Will in Tier 1. I’ve heard arguments for taking Unbreakable Will because many boss fights involve stuns or silences. Ultimately whilst Unbreakable Will does offer you some utility in the shape of more freedom, for almost every situation the 5% more healing from instant casts is a substantially better option. In the long term, you will heal for more with 5% better instant casts than you will with ½ a second less stuns or silences here and there.
The same line of thinking continues throughout. Improved Inner Fire increases your spell power so we take that. Threat and dispel resistance is not an issue, so we avoid Silent Resolve.
Meditation is mandatory in every Priest spec there is. It’s a shame because until it’s not required there is no room for Blizzard or us to experiment with different sorts of specs. There is no room to make the Holy tree even slightly tempting to Shadow priests, nor the Shadow Tree tempting to Holy priests. Perhaps that’s acceptable given the lore, but I could imagine a lot if interesting stuff that Blizzard could try out. As it is, three points in Meditation are non-negotiable.
Inner Focus is lacklustre, except that it works incredibly well with Prayer of Healing and Divine Hymn. Macro it into either (or both) of those spells and it can save you a few thousand mana per fight whilst boosting your crit rate on your big spells.
Spot Heal 